Editorial: Respecting people’s choices

If you know me, you know one of the things I say almost everyday is simply “let people live their lives.”

I am big on letting people do the things that make them happy as long as it is not hurting anyone else, and that is something I really want to get across in my writing.

If people want to take a year off school to backpack across Asia then they should be allowed to.

If someone needs to take a reduced course load because they cannot handle doing five classes at a time, they should be able to.

We only have one life; therefore, every person should be allowed to live the life that they see fit.

I am a twenty-year-old female currently in her third year at Laurier and I am still mind blown that so many people have things to say about the way that I live my life, specifically surrounding the things that I want to do with my body.

When I was sixteen years old I started to tell people that I could not imagine myself ever having a child or giving birth (I think this was after I heard an intense birthing story).

This announcement seemed to strike a nerve in some people, saying that I am young, and that I will eventually change my mind.

Then people started showing me baby videos and things of that nature trying to get me to think that I will not be living life to the fullest until I have a child.

Just to clarify, I do not have a problem with children or people having children – maybe later in life I will change my mind about having said children.

I just have so much stuff I want to do in my life before I settle down and destroy my body by pushing another living thing out of it.

But as people keep reminding me, I have a biological clock; so if I do everything I want to do before having kids I will miss my chance.

I have also wanted a tattoo since I was sixteen years old as well, but it wasn’t until I turned nineteen that I really knew what tattoo I would want to get. But people keep telling me that I will regret it later in life and it will sag and look ugly the older I get, or the best thing of all to hear about tattoos “you know its permanent right?”

The funniest thing about that comment to me is that people are worried about me regretting a tattoo that is permanent, but a child is also a permanent part of your life as well. One that definetly requires more attention than I am even willing to give most people in my life.

I am the one who must live in my body. Why do so many people care about what I do with it?

If you’re worried I will regret something later in life, please stop worrying cause that’s on me.

I am making these choices and most of the time they really do not affect your life (unless you’re my parents listening to me rant about how at this current moment in life you will not be getting grandchildren).

I really do not want to live my life worrying about what I might regret in twenty years. That will make me a million times more anxious than I already am.